230 amp reading on 200 amp service, bad clamp meter?

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oscarcolumbo

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I have a Klein cl1300 clamp meter that I just purchased on eBay. I was at a customers house and was getting a high amp reading and since I didn't have my backup meter, I wasn't sure if the reading was correct or not. the reading was 230 amps total on a 200 amp service, 115 amps on each phase, but the main breaker didn't trip, which lead me to believe it was a wrong reading. Could it be that I need the meter to be calibrated?
 
A 200-a breaker can run for days, maybe forever, at 230 amps.

They do not trip 0.0000000000001 seconds after 200.000000000000000000000001 amps is reached.
 
Sorry, the reading was 215 amps on my meter, not 115. I'm almost positive that it was a bad reading though. The feeders weren't getting hot, the main wasn't tripping. It wasn't a huge house, and they had gas appliances.
 
oscarcolumbo said:
Sorry, the reading was 215 amps on my meter, not 115. I'm almost positive that it was a bad reading though. The feeders weren't getting hot, the main wasn't tripping. It wasn't a huge house, and they had gas appliances.
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Ba
d meter or it was 21.5 amps not 215 amps
 
oscarcolumbo said:
I have a Klein cl1300 clamp meter that I just purchased on eBay. I was at a customers house and was getting a high amp reading and since I didn't have my backup meter, I wasn't sure if the reading was correct or not. the reading was 230 amps total on a 200 amp service, 115 amps on each phase, but the main breaker didn't trip, which lead me to believe it was a wrong reading. Could it be that I need the meter to be calibrated?
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115 amps on each 'phase' is well within the rating of a 200 amp service, because 200 is also the capacity of each phase.
 
I looked up instructions for that model, not real clear what you get when you manually select a range, but if you turn it off and then back on I think it should be in auto range mode, and would display actual amps. Most likely manual ranges may include more precision. like display 10.21 amps instead of 10.2 or just 10.
 
oscarcolumbo said:
I have a Klein cl1300 clamp meter that I just purchased on eBay. I was at a customers house and was getting a high amp reading and since I didn't have my backup meter, I wasn't sure if the reading was correct or not. the reading was 230 amps total on a 200 amp service, 115 amps on each phase, but the main breaker didn't trip, which lead me to believe it was a wrong reading. Could it be that I need the meter to be calibrated?
Click to expand...
Did you acrually read 230A anywhere?
 
Probably a bad meter, or change the batteries.

Probably a bad meter, or change the batteries.

I have seen a 15 amp breaker hold at 50 amps.
The key to it not tripping is to slowly bring the amperage up.
 
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